1 in 5 Macs now wide open to malware attacks

Much like Windows XP users who refuse to upgrade, any holdover Mac users who are still clinging to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard should really think about making the switch soon. ComputerWorld notices that in its last two major security updates for Macs it has forsaken Snow Leopard and has instead only issued the updates to Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks. This means that anyone who still uses Snow Leopard on their Mac — which is around 19% of Mac users ‚ won’t have the latest security patches going forward and will be potentially wide open to attacks.

You may be wondering why Apple has not done more to advertise that it’s ending support for Snow Leopard while Microsoft has been screaming bloody murder for more than a year about the fact that it’s going to end support for Windows XP this spring. As Andrew Storms, director of DevOps at security company CloudPassage, has told ComputerWorld in the past, “Apple doesn’t go out of their way to ensure users are aware when products are going end of life.”